The cleaning of houses, office buildings, and certain other structures can be challenging due to high ceilings, furniture placed within rooms, and other structural features. For example, the physical dimensions of various furniture can limit one's ability to clean under them, ceiling corners can be difficult to reach, and bending or crouching to clean floors can strain one's back.
Moreover, people engaging in cleaning operations on a regular basis may be concerned about frequent contact with various chemicals found in cleaning preparations. Regardless of whether this is just a matter of consumer perception, or whether the concerns relate to actual medical or safety issues (e.g. skin irritation), this can affect consumer preferences. Concerns about contacting such chemicals may be perceived as greater when the consumer needs to place their finger in close proximity to a dispenser outlet in order to dispense the chemical, or if the chemical is sprayed in close proximity to where the human's head is.
Hence, there have been a number of attempts to separate the trigger for an aerosol can from the outlet, sometimes by several feet. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,679,319, 3,794,217, 4,789,084, 4,886,191 and 5,779,155. The disclosure of these patents, and the priority application referred to above, are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Another concern is that while an adult will typically prefer an over cap and valve for an aerosol can that is intuitive in its operation and relatively easy to use, this may not be optimal in all cases. For example, aerosol cans that are too easy to trigger may lead to accidental or unauthorized discharge. Balancing the need for easy operation with the desire for control over use can be challenging, particularly when a remote triggering system, or an aerosol over cap, activates the aerosol can.
A particular problem when using a remote triggering system is the reliance aerosol cans typically have-on protruding valve stems. Such stems can suffer from reliability issues such as breaking off during use. Also, they can lead to undesired dispensing since they are always linked to the dispensing valve after manufacture.
In separate, unrelated work, Summit Packaging Systems, Inc. has developed a female valve for an aerosol container. The valve is operated by a push button having an integral downwardly projecting valve stem. While this structure has addressed some of the issues described above, to our knowledge female aerosol valves have not reliably been adapted for use with remotely triggered sprayers used for cleaning, or adapted for use with over cap actuators.
Thus, a need exists to provide devices which better address these concerns, particularly in the context of remotely triggered sprayers and sprayers relying on over cap actuators, while still retaining the capability of performing core dispensing functions.